Welcome everyone to another, rather late, week of Planetes! Apologies for that, work has been busy this week. This time we get to meet everyone’s families, Hachimaki makes a move and Fee gets a new ship. Lets jump in!
So in general, I thought these two episodes were well put together. Nothing phenomenal, I didn’t break down weeping at any point. But it looked good, and the characters were used well. A perfect example of both for me is Hachimaki’s little brother, Kyuutarou. Animation wise, his time in the shed looked great. After the break you will find an image of him testing his rocket that I think stood out. The contrasting blacks, to make the shot look brighter than it is, all worked. As a character he also provided us a look into Hachimaki and a continuation of Yuri. Both of which I was glad for. Did it make me question things like Hachi’s time on the moon, or tear up like Yuri mourning his wife? No. But it was good nonetheless.
Onto specifics, let’s talk about episode 13, Scenery with a Rocket. To me this was the better of the two episodes. The focus on the characters, getting to see them with their own families was nice. It gave them time to contemplate and react to recent events. For instance Yuri, who should still be getting over the recent closure of his wife. I am glad this made a comeback and that what was such a huge moment for him is still affecting him. It may not add anything of consequence to the series as a whole, but it gives the event more weight when looking back on it. It gives Yuri a bit more character. Planetes also showed us the results of weeks alone together in space and teasing with Tanabe and Hachimaki. This outcome was pretty obvious, but the restraint shown to wait this long is appreciated.
The nicest part of the episode for me though was seeing everyone’s families. Getting to know they exist outside the office. Take Ravi for instance, whom we have heard much about his family from. Originally it was used as a gag, about how he has to make payments to take care of them and such. But actually seeing them, bringing them into the story, helps us see him as a more 3-dimensional character. Before he was the goofy stereotype Assistant. Now he is a family man trying to make the best of his long months stuck in space, taking care of his family. Or showing the emotionless intern enjoying a goth/cosplay event. She still has no character and no real reason for existing in the story, but at least now we know something about her. She feels slightly less of a card board cutout now.
Episode 14, Turning Point, on the other hand is much more focused in its scope. Where episode 13 tried to get a little bit of everyone, 14 dedicates itself to Tanabe and Hachimaki. I figured that would be the case, there would be some ridiculous misunderstanding that would cause some friction. What I wasn’t expecting was for the reason to be perfectly valid, and occur all across the world. Disallowing workplace relationships. Sure there was still some classic misunderstanding with word choice in there from Hachimaki. But the crux of the issue were the rules, and whether or not they liked each other to completely ignore them. I think it was a perfectly valid way to speed up their relationship, considering how slow of a burn it had been up until that point. Planetes even commented on society with the side story of the episode.
That side story being the Scientist in Section 3 and the Division Chiefs daughter. Once again, its focused on workplace relationships, but the message of the episode seems to be condemning the restrictions placed on them. How this scientists desire to complete his last research project, and maybe take the girl with him to Mars, inspires Tanabe and Hachimaki to fully commit to each other. It fits perfectly with the rest of the series message in regards to borders and separation of peoples. From borders on Earth, to borders in space, to Tanabe’s moralizing of love and family, to these most recent relationships. All of these are fitting together for on consistent narrative tone. I think without that consistent tone, consistent end theme of almost every episode, these wouldn’t be near as good as they are.
What I mean by that is, in a vacuum, few of Planetes recent episodes have stood out. They have their moments sure, but there are none of them I can point to and say “Thats the best episode of the lot”. They all build on each other and that consistent tone, hitting a new topic each week. All the while communicating the authors views on society. Monster did something very similar, but with the down to earth crime thriller it was, the story was more focused. Here the author has room to float around a bit and easily hit many different topics or areas of society. It’s very interesting, and I am looking forward to how the series closes out. I just hope that it starts to pick up soon, because these sorts of weekly stories can only hold the series for so long.
What do you think though? Planetes starting to lose steam for you to? Was Hachimaki and Tanabe’s relationship a bit out of the blue or poorly foreshadowed? Let me know below, and I will see you next week!
I remember the relationship between the H and T being a bit forced. Like tbh I didnt get why T was even interested in H. His character was quite aloof all in all and he was mostly focused on his own goals. The show might lose steam but the slower pacing here builds towards something as opposed to walking dead or some nonsense that uses slower pacing to pad out episodes.
I can get that. Hachi really hasn’t done anything to earn it. It seems to me that the entire relationship was fed into by the other cast members, more than T and H. Pilot Boi constantly mentioning her to H and T’s friend trying to set her up with H. A sort of jealousy setup.